‘The difficult is what takes a little time; the impossible is what takes a little longer,’ said Fridtj of Nansen. Albert Einstein advised, ‘Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts’ and Cseslaw Milosz warned, ‘In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot.’ Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been the hallmark of genius, but Nobel laureates tend to be more than merely brilliant – their idealism, courage and concern for humanity have also made them sources of inspiration and wisdom.